Stair lighting hand rail



Oct. 9, 1956 F. R. ALBRIS STAIR LIGHTING HAND RAIL Filed Feb. 10, 1955 mele' ,6 INVENTOR. FRANK e. ALe/s ,Q/CHE); wArrs, EDGEETONMNENNY l Arron/Ys United States Patent O STAR LIGHTING HAND RAIL Frank R. Albris, Parma, Ohio Application February 10, 1955, Serial No. 487,395

2 Claims. (Cl. 240-2) This invention relates generally to the art of lighting and particularly to a new combined stairway hand rail and stairway lighting fixture.

A main object of this invention is to provide a hand rail of pleasing appearance which will not only serve as a support to one going up or down the stairway, but will also house a light source and direct the light rays down onto the stair steps.

The invention will be better understood by those skilled in the art from the following specification and the drawings accompanying it in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of one form of device embodying the present invention and shown positioned relative to a part of a stairway;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 2 and showing` the hand rail, a light source therein and certain associated parts; and

Fig. 4 is a Wiring diagram for use with a device embodying the present invention and having three light bulbs connected in parallel.

In Figs. 1 to 3 is shown a hand rail 1 for a stairway which hand rail defines a chamber 2 therewithin opening through the lower part of the hand rail, as at 3. Hand rail 1 may be composed of various materials, such as metal, wood, glass, plastics and the like, and when it is composed of glass or plastics, wood or other non-reflecting material, its inner surface should be coated with a light-reflecting medium 4 which may be applied in the form of paint or foil such as aluminum foil, or in any other well known manner. It may be desirable to coat the inner surface of the hand rail in this manner even when it is composed of metal since thereby the amount of light directed downwardly onto the steps beneath the hand rail will be considerably increased.

The hand rail 1 is supported in any suitable manner, but as shown it is held in place by brackets 5 secured to the wall and fitting into plugs 7 fixed in position in chamber 2.

The light sources, such as elongated lluorescent tubes 10, are positioned in chamber 2 to direct light down through opening 3 and onto the stair steps therebeneath. As shown in Fig. 1 there are three of these tubes, one being located between the two brackets 5 and the others between each of those brackets and the adjacent end of the hand rail. It will be understood that the hand rail may be much longer than is shown in Fig. 1, if necessary, and that more or less tubes may be used within it, the

fatented Oct. 9, 1956 lice number of tubes, in general, being dictated by the length of the hand rail and the extent of stairway to be lighted.

Each of the tubes 10 is supported by sockets 11 which are aixed to the inner surface of the hand rail opposite opening 3 and the usual ballast 12 and starters 13 and starter brackets 14 are also secured in place within the hand rail and are operatively associated in the electrical circuit shown in Fig. 4 by which electrical energy is supplied to the tubes 10.

Switches 15 are located at each end of the hand rail for ready access to the user. These switches are threepole, two-way switches of the standard type and make it possible for the tubes to be energized by actuating the switch at either end of the hand rail.

As will be noted in Fig. 4 the three tubes 1l) and their ballast 12 are connected in parallel across the house lighting circuit 16 in which the switches 15 are connected as shown.

When the hand rail 1 is made suiciently rigid to serve as a hand rail and is provided with light sources therewithin it serves the dual purpose of ahand rail and a lighting tixture for the stairway.

Although I have illustrated and described herein a specific embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention may be practiced in other forms. For example, the hand rail 1 may also be associated with the spindles of a stairway railing in which case the spindles may be spaced far enough apart to permit the mounting of small tubes or bulbs between the spindles.

Having thus described the present invention so that others skilled in the art may be able to practice it, I state that what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is defined n what is claimed.

1. A hollow stairway hand rail generally U-shaped in cross section, having a light-reflecting inner surface and an opening in one side extending for substantially its full length, said rail being positioned with its open side down, plugs secured in said open side at longitudinally spaced intervals, brackets secured at one end to a wall adjacent to the hand rail and having free ends engaging and supporting said plugs, sockets xed against the upper inner surface of the hand rail, and elongated light tubes supported within said hand rail by said sockets. v

2. A hollow stairway hand rail generally U-shaped in cross section, having a light-reliecting inner surface and an opening in one side extending for substantially its full length, said rail being positioned with its open side down, plugs secured in said open side at longitudinally spaced intervals and having holes extending upwardly therein, brackets secured at one end to a wall adjacent to the hand rail and having free ends fitted into said holes in the plugs and having shoulders to engage the lower surfaces of said plugs, sockets fixed against the upper inner surface of the hand rail, elongated light tubes supported by said sockets within said hand rail, said tubes being electrically connected in, in parallel, and switches at the ends of said hand rail to control the ilow of current to said tubes.

References Cited inthe le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

